Hegseth Says Chief Of Staff Moving To New Role Amid Dod Tumult

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a recent interview that his chief of staff Joe Kasper is moving to a new role within the Pentagon amid the ongoing tumult at the Department of Defense (DOD), as three of his top aides were terminated last week. 

“Joe is a great guy, great American. He has done a fantastic job for us at the Defense Department, securing the southwest border, getting a beachhead here at the Pentagon,” Hegseth said during a Tuesday morning appearance on “Fox & Friends.” 

“He's staying with us. Going to be in a slightly different role, but he's not going anywhere, certainly not fired,” he told host Brian Kilmeade. “You make changes over time, and we're grateful for everything Joe's done.” 

A senior U.S. defense official told The Hill on Tuesday that Kasper will continue serving as a special government employee "handling special projects" at the DOD.

“Secretary Hegseth is thankful for his continued leadership and work to advance the America First agenda," the official added.

Kasper's forthcoming departure from the role was first reported by Politico.

Kasper’s shift marks another change at the department, where a handful of top advisers have already been terminated. On Friday, the Pentagon fired senior aides Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick, all of whom initially were placed on paid administrative leave days earlier and escorted out of the building. 

The trio was terminated after the DOD opened an investigation into the leaks of information to news outlets. 

All three of the political appointees said in a joint statement that they have not been told what they were probed for and are “incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended.”

Kasper signed a memo last month, kick-starting a probe into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.” 

“This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” Kasper wrote in a March 21 memo. “The report will include a complete record of unauthorized disclosures within the Department of Defense and recommendations to improve such efforts.”

Hegseth is under new scrutiny after The New York Times reported Sunday that he shared attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen in a Signal thread with his wife, brother and personal lawyer. He created the chat and shared the information from his personal phone, the outlet reported. 

Hegseth said on Tuesday morning that the messages on Signal were “informal” and “unclassified.” 

“I look at war plans every single day. What was shared over Signal, then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordination for media coordination and other things,” the Defense secretary said on Fox News. “That’s what I’ve said from the beginning.”